BLESSINGS

Wisdom from a Midwife

The beginning of our lives, the beginning of our connection to our maternal roots, the beginning of our worlds begins with the implantation of the placenta. It is this divine structure that allows for the continuous growth of the fetus from zygote to baby.

Our placenta communicates for us. “In the beginning there was the word” (John 1:1). It is the placental language that speaks the words of breath and food, filtering the waste products created by the baby and delivering vital oxygen and nutrients to her.

The word placenta comes from the Latin word for cake. Like a layered birthday cake, it is a cherished symbol of the beginning of a new life. So, go ahead and eat your placenta. Or when blowing out the birthday candles on your little one’s birth day and on the completion of its function, honor the service it has provided at the start of a new year and a new life.

-Nile Sennett Nash RN, NP, CNM